


Can't Kill Us

by agent_red_bane69



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: AWWWW YEAAAHHH, Also he knows he can't resist Carlos since he secretly adores him, Carlos is adorable, Chuck actually trusts Carlos with the task of watching Max when he and Herc are out fighting Kaijus, Gen, Good Lord what have I done?, Herc is secretly jealous but he would never tell Chuck, I Blame Tumblr, Jesus is the voice of reason, LOOK AT ALL THE TAGS, M/M, MATADOR FURY IS IN THE HOUSE, Meanwhile Yancy and Jesus just stand aside and shake their heads like Why?, Multi, Raleigh and Carlos are a tag team duo that create chaos for everyone in the Shatterdome, Stacker is so done with everyone, Thanks Tumblr, all the feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 20:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1402162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent_red_bane69/pseuds/agent_red_bane69
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life as a Jaeger Pilot is dangerous yet thrilling. But for Jesus Guerrero and Carlos Rivera, it's their escape from the harsh realities. As they pilot Mexico's Matador Fury, they discover that maybe escapism isn't the solution to everything. Maybe it's best to face the storm that may throw us off course, as scary as it seems, but.... In the end, they know that they've got their family at the Shatterdome who will be there every step of the way and fight alongside them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Kill Us

**Author's Note:**

> So this was inspired by a post on Tumblr that starts with the line "Jaeger with a bumper sticker on its rear that says 'Jesus is my Co-Pilot'". As soon as I saw that and the posts about Matador Fury on Tumblr as well, I knew that I just had to write about them since I saw that no one else has. I wanted to know how they would get involved with what happens in the film and what roles they play among the other characters. And because they were named Jesus and Carlos in that tumblr post, I decided to give them last names and backstories that both go with the whole "They were convicts" headcanon that has been established and flesh out the characters a bit, mainly for an introduction. This is my first work on AO3 and I hope I can capture the true personas of these characters, so I apologize ahead of time if they are out of character. Wow, this note is long. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy the story!

            It was one of those mornings that Jesús Guerrero did not want to get out of bed. Not because of his dealing with whatever Category Kaiju was out there, but rather his fascination for the reoccurring dreams he’s been having. His best friend and co-pilot, Carlos Rivera, tells him that it’s just memories of his life before the Jaeger Academy coming back to him but Jesús doesn’t know what to think. Either way, he’s happy that at least his subconscious is filling his mind with images whilst he slept.

                        In the dreams, he would be in either one of two places. He would be at the beach with his family and enjoying a nice and very much appreciated swim, meanwhile his proud parents would watch him from the shore as he and his younger brother Jaime would fight in the water or ride the waves. At the age of twenty-five, you’d think that he would want to start thinking of settling down and starting a family of his own. Even if he had done some things that he would later on regret such as fighting in underground MMA Cage fights in order to win money to pay the rent, getting in a fight with another bar patron while slightly intoxicated because he used a racial slur against him, or the jail sentence he received for assaulting a man who tried to rob the family store and was not armed. The court had reminded him that he could have ran away but Jesús found that reason to be unacceptable under and circumstances. Jesús had thought about the many times he wanted to change his life but that was before Carlos became his best friend. Jesús had found a way to redeem himself after handling a few months in prison by turning to the Catholic Church and trying his best to support his family. Meeting Carlos was the icing on the cake of redemption. 

The other place his mind would take him back to was the moment when he met Carlos…. On the side of a bridge. Jesús never understood why anyone would ever consider taking their own life when there is so much to live for. But when he saw that young man, couldn’t be older than twenty-two, standing there and just about to let go of everything, he knew he had to step in to save him. After an introduction was made and Jesús had reassured him that nothing bad was going to happen, he began to explain to Carlos as to why he had to keep fighting the good fight.

“Every day, we all face a sort of obstacle that make things difficult and unbearable. Whether it’s being late for work or being homeless but, let me tell you something, you’ve got a friend in me. Hermano, I will not stand by and watch a guy like you throw everything away. Come away from there and I can help you, trust me.”

“FUCK YOU, MAN! What makes me think you won’t double-cross me and leave me for dead once I get away from this bridge? I’m not an idiot, amigo mio, but…. I just, I just don’t want to be alone and be seen as a worthless piece of shit anymore.” Jesús remembered seeing Carlos cry and he knew that it took a lot to make a guy like him cry and thus led Jesús to do the unthinkable. He climbed over to where his new friend stood and convinced him to come away from that point and stay with him for as long as he needed. Of course, he didn’t take into consideration of what his family would say but he didn’t care. This was a life or death situation and he knew that he had to be the Good Samaritan.

Carlos never knew how to properly thank his new friend ever since that day. In Spanish, he would mumble phrases of gratitude and how God had sent him a guardian angel to watch over him. Jesús could only smile at that point and thank him for not ending his life. Carlos wanted to make it up to Jesús for his kindness and show that he too could be a great person like he was. After all, Carlos didn’t have a clean record either. He was a fighter and got into trouble with the law on multiple occasions. But the worst scenario was when he had killed a man in cold blood at the age of nineteen because of the fact that the man had kidnapped and raped his younger sister. This was an act that he couldn’t stomach and thought of how he could handle facing the criminal who had done that to his sister, killing the man was the last resort. He had acquired the .45 caliber from a gun shop in order to keep for self-defense and this was a moment of pure defense, despite the pleas from his sister as to why he should not kill the criminal. Her words went through one ear and came out the other as he pulled the trigger. Carlos was then sent to face a trial where he was convicted for first degree assault and spent two whole years in jail. No one had come to visit him but then there were the days where his sister would pay him a visit that usually lasted at the very least an hour. Life after prison was miserable since not a lot of work places wanted to hire him and he only had his High School diploma as a form of education. The one year of pure dread and failure to keep up with anything, either rent or payments on his car, was where he figured that he had officially stepped into Hell and thought that the only way out was to end it himself. Jesús’ brave act of kindness was the kick in the ass that he needed in order to find a way to make it through the day and to find a way to make it up to Jesús.

And that was when the Jaeger Academy became his token of gratitude. The flyer was sent out at least four months after Carlos had established a bond with Jesús as he worked in his family’s bodega. Carlos had received a flyer that was an enlistment ad for a program in which training was provided to become pilots of giant robots, who would help save the world, due to the oncoming Kaiju War. He had shown this flyer to Jesús, telling him that they didn’t need to find anyone to be their co-pilot since they would be considered ‘drift compatible’ due to their friendship. This was a big decision on account of how he would have to say goodbye to his family in order to enlist in the Jaeger Academy and become a pilot. Carlos didn’t have much of a family, his sister would be the one who would miss him and that alone put some guilt into the pit of his stomach. But he wanted to make this world a better place for her just as much as Jesús wanted to make his family proud of him. It was in the middle of the night where Jesús had snuck over wards Carlos, who was sleeping on the pullout couch, and told him where his destiny lied.

“Carlos? Carlos, wake up!” Jesús tapped on his friend’s shoulder repeatedly until a slight groan and muttering of ‘who the hell is up at this hour’ in Spanish was said. “Listen, so I’ve made a decision and…. We should become Jaeger Pilots.” Carlos turned over and looked at his friend with the same wide eyes he had seen the day they met.

“Bro, are you serious? You really want to go through with this? I thought you said you wanted to stay here and run the family bodega since your Dad was going to retire and shit.” Jesús looked down at his hands as he fiddled with his thumbs. Carlos ran a hand through his face, rubbing the deep sleep off of it so that he could hear Jesús’ reasoning.

“I know what I said before, but it’s just…. I don’t want to just sit here and run the place once Papi retires. I want my life to have some more meaning than that and I feel like this program could do that for us. Like we could change how people see us, give them a reason to smile when they see us rather than shake their heads at how disappointed they are in us. Wouldn’t your sister want to see you become a better man? I know my parents aren’t going to be pleased with this plan, but they have to understand that this is for them. I want to show them that I’m capable of doing something so noble that it’ll leave them in tears when we get back home. Y’know, that’s if those giant monster things don’t kill us first but I have a feeling that they won’t. So, what do you say? Wanna’ be my co-pilot?”

Even in the dark, Carlos had never thought that this would happen to him. Not in a million years. As a sense of relief passed him, he grabbed onto his friend and held him there, content and excited for what the future would bring for them as they would enlist and dream of one day becoming heroes. Of course, being a Jaeger Pilot has its drawbacks….

“FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CARLOS, IF YOU DON’T TURN THAT DOWN, I’LL EJECT YOU FROM MATADOR AND LEAVE YOU WITH THE KAIJUS!”

Two o’clock in the morning and already Carlos found it to be the perfect time to play ‘Aguanile’ by Marc Anthony. At least, he had a reason to be up at that hour. The freaking alarms went off signaling to them that there was movement from the breach and that a Category 3 was unleashed.

“Don’t act like you don’t love this song, Jesús. You know you do.” Carlos said, a laugh barely hiding in his voice. Jesús could only give him the death glare before jumping down from his bunk in only a gray shirt and Docker boxers, his normally slicked back dark hair was a mess but at this point no one cared. He had seen days where even Tendo forgets to run his daily ritual for perfect hair. “There’s movement and Matador will probably be sent out there with Gipsy and Cherno to kick some ass.” Jesús looked back to the alarm monitor and saw that Matador Fury was indeed called into battle, an eyebrow was slightly raised. Damn, that kid was ready for just about anything. A loud banging on the door was heard and it nearly made Jesús jump out of his skin before seeing Carlos open the door and yelling, “Hey, Raleigh!” If Raleigh had shown up at the door, it was only a matter of seconds before, “What’s up, Yancy?” Jesús, even in his tired state, could only furrow his eyebrows and then proceed to smile when Yancy Becket walked into the room.

“Is he always like that, even at this hour?” Yancy asked.

“You get used to it, I suppose, but it’s no big deal. Want some coffee?” The elder Becket nodded his head and followed Jesús over to their makeshift kitchen where he began to make some coffee.

“How have you been, Jesús?” Jesús shrugged his shoulders and only replied with,

“I’ve seen better days, Yancy, but I can’t complain. The number of kills on Matador’s belt is getting stronger with each deployment and it leaves me with a sense of pride that I could bring home to my parents, provided that they haven’t been watching the news every minute of every day.” He laughed quietly. “Aye mis padres, they worry about everything and yet I keep sending them letters telling them not to. That reminds me, they wanted me to tell you and your brother thanks for helping Matador out in battle.” Yancy nodded again and Jesús handed him a cup of coffee before making one for himself.

“Anytime, Jesús. You guys save Gipsy’s back when the situation calls for it so it’s only fair that we return the gratitude.”   
  
                        While Jesús regarded Carlos as his best friend and co-pilot, he had also regarded Yancy Becket as the older brother he never thought he wanted. The same could be said for the friendship between Raleigh and Carlos, those two were inseparable when they were near each other. They had met the Becket brothers back at the Jaeger Academy and it was there that friendships were established in the event that they would be deployed together or if they just needed other Jaeger pilots to talk to and hang out with when they weren’t out fighting Kaijus.

“What about you, Yancy? What’s up with you and your brother?” Yancy looked over at Raleigh who was pulling on Carlos’ shirt as a manner of play fighting and smiled, taking another sip of his beverage.

“Same old, same old. Pesky younger brother annoying the absolute crap out of me but, at the end of the day, he’s still my brother and I care about him.” Jesús thought about his friendship with Carlos and smiled, he knew he had made the right decision in joining the Jaeger Program with Carlos as his co-pilot. Yancy finished his cup of coffee and placed the cup in the sink before turning to the younger pilots saying, “C’mon guys, we’ve got work to do.” The two younger pilots looked at each other before standing straight and nodding.

“You better watch your back, Carlos, I might kick your ass later!” He threw a fake punch at him and Carlos retaliated by dodging it and replying with,

“Dude, I’ll kick your ass before you even think of kicking mine!”

It was there that the two teams had realized that the alarms would only get louder and therefore they needed to head over to the launch bay and prepare to fight. Jesús stood next to Carlos as Yancy stood beside Raleigh and they began their walk to the launch bay. It was just another day of battle and this was a life that, after everything they had been through, Jesús wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“All right, let’s suit up and kick some ass!” Raleigh yelled and this caused Jesús, Carlos, and Yancy to yell in agreement.

Indeed, it was time to kick some ass.......


End file.
